2/8/2009 - Lowell, VT

Date of hunt: 2/8/2009
Location: Doug Duffys
Weather: Snowy
Temperature: 41 °F (Start) 34 °F (End)
Dogs of mine: Bailey
Running Partners: Dad, Dustin, Logan
# of Rabbits Ran: 3
# of Rabbits Shot: 0

We pulled onto Robtoy Road around 9:40. Geared up with the snowshoes and geared up Bailey. I found the road down to swamp that I had been looking at on Google maps. It was right next to the driveway of the new camp built up there. Each step sunk about 10 - 12 inches, but we stayed on top of the 3 foot base. I cut the trail down towards the swamp while keeping an eye out for rabbit tracks. Cut moose tracks first, and then saw a few old rabbit tracks covered by the fresh inch of snow from this morning. There were a lot of young hardwoods and few soft woods that I was looking for. There was a small patch of softwoods that I told Bailey to get into. Dad followed her in to try and get her to work. She was hitting the holes pretty good and searching hard. She started barking a bit and I was nervous. With all the moose sign around I wasn't 100% sure if it was a rabbit. She started running a track slowly and then hit hard and started running good. She kept steady for about 3 minutes and then checked for about 2. Ran for about 10 minutes and checked again. It was patchy running, but I was really happy that she was running! My low expectations were met and blown away. It was great! Bailey lost the rabbit after about 30 minutes. There was about 2 small circles out in front of us and then one last circle towards us where she lost it. We decided to pick up and head down deeper towards the swamp.
Deeper down the road I started to see more softwoods and a trail that cut West into the softwoods. We tucked into the softwoods and started looking for sign. Dustin was leading and I told him to call Bailey over and have her look in the blow down right next to him. She looked for a bit and then moved on. Logan mentioned to jump on it and I did. Out came a rabbit like a bullet. I called Bailey over and she got right on it. She ran it better than the first one, but lost out after 10 minutes. At this point we were pretty deep and Dustin wore sneakers with his snowshoes. We thought it would be best to hunt back up towards the truck. We worked the woods on the way up and decided to just walk up the trail and go to the truck. We got back up to where we started the first rabbit and I saw where a rabbit crossed our snowshoe trail. I got Bailey on it and she ran it well. She ran solid for about 15 minutes without a check. I was really impressed how much better she ran each time today. She circled the rabbit a couple of times out near the first run and then checked. After a while I called Dustin up to have him go up to the truck, I was concerned about his feet. When he got back up to us Bailey started up running again. She kept getting closer and we were all at ready. Dad saw a glimpse and pointed it out to Dustin. No shot. The rabbit ran right down to where Dustin was, had he been there. We grabbed Bailey and headed up to the truck as it was getting late and keeping her on the trail would be another hour before we got Dustin back up to the truck.
I was really happy with today's hunt. It was Bailey's first run in the snow and she got better on each run. I look forward to another day like today.